If more snow continues to fall this season, and the road crew in the Borough of Mahanoy City runs low on road salt, Bob King, the borough foreman, will have to put his thinking cap on.

"If we really get into a situation where we're low and we're not going to be getting any for a while, we'll just do the intersections instead of whole streets. We knew the temperatures would go up when the sun came up, so it was going to melt anyway. So 20 feet from the intersection you'd start. We did that once this year. What storm? I couldn't tell you," King said Tuesday.

The numerous snowstorms that hit the region this winter depleted road salt supplies more quickly than usual. Demand for road salt is on the rise. Suppliers aren't able to keep up. Deliveries that usually take a week are being delayed to two or three. And municipalities like Mahanoy City are considering options to make it through the rest of the winter, King said.

"It is a real problem. It may point to the need for boroughs and townships, and everybody else they're buying their salt from to consider multiple vendors," E.J. Knittel, senior director of the education and sustainability division of the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs, Harrisburg, said Monday.

There's a 100 percent chance of snow today with accumulation of up to eight inches, according to the website for the National Weather Service, State College, at www.weather.gov.

Joseph L. Palubinsky said he hasn't seen a winter quite like this in the 26 years he's been Shenandoah borough manager.

"I don't remember having so many storms and it being this cold for continual periods of time. In the past, after a storm it would warm up for a couple of days and that hasn't been the case," Palubinsky said.

Knittel said the last time municipalities in the state saw road salt shortages like this was in 1994.

"Before this winter is over, you're going to see municipal leaders experience frustration and anticipation. There's going to be emotions. There's going to be anger in some cases. Some are going to have to spend much more than they budgeted because they're going to have to buy salt from other places, or you might not be able to get salt. So what are you going to do? And you have, like, five weeks of winter left," Knittel said.

Municipal leaders in Ryan Township and Shenandoah insist they're not cutting back on the amount of road salt they're putting on the roads. However, Palubinsky and Ryan Township Councilman Clyde C. "Champ" Holman said their road crews think first before clicking on the road salt spreader.

"We're trying to do what we normally do in keeping the streets open and safe," Palubinsky said.

In Shenandoah on Tuesday, the borough had a mixture of road salt and anti-skid material in stock, "about 20 ton," Palubinsky said.

Like Mahanoy City and Ryan Township, Shenandoah orders its road salt through the state's COSTARS program.

It's Pennsylvania's cooperative purchasing program which is administered by the state Department of General Services Bureau of Procurement, according to its website at www.portal.state.pa.us.

King expects 25 tons of road salt to be delivered to Mahanoy City by Feb. 20.

Palubinsky expects 25 tons of road salt to be delivered to Shenandoah by Friday.

"We're not cutting back. We're being as judicious as we can. On sunny days, there are some roads we don't have to salt because the sun will do its job," Holman said.

"There are certain hills that receive more sun than others. In those areas, the snow on the roads is melting during the day," Palubinsky said.

"But not all roads are like that," Holman said.

"As of right now, we're not cutting back. But if it gets tighter with salt, we'll have to put a restriction on what we use," Jack Blew, road foreman for Ryan Township, said Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Blew eyeballed what remained of the township's road salt supply.

"Today, I'd say we have less than 18 ton. I ordered another load last week, about 25 ton. Usually it takes a week to 10 days to get a load of salt. But they told me our next delivery date is the 26th of February. So they're saying I can't get a load of salt for three weeks," Blew said.

Since the beginning of the week, King had been thinking about the snowstorm due to hit the area today.

"I've heard everything from an inch or two to 16 inches. We're planning for the worst right now. Right now, we've got about five ton of road salt and about 10 ton of cinders. We have about 22 miles of streets. During a snowstorm, we could drop up to seven or eight ton of material on the road. If we get a major storm this week, it could take it all," King said.

Some municipalities help out others in need. For example, King said Mahanoy City may have to "borrow" some road salt from Mahanoy Township this week.

"We'll take two buckets of road salt from their pile with our loader, then when our load comes in, I'll take two buckets back to them," King said.

Meanwhile, municipalities running low have to decide how best to use what they've got, King said.

"Every Tuesday, we might pick up about three ton of cinders," King said.

Cinders are a good anti-skid material, he said.

The Borough of Mahanoy City has two plows with road salt spreaders. One distributes only road salt. The other can distribute a mixture of road salt and cinders, King said.

"And if we run low on road salt, we'll mix more of the cinders in," King said.

Knittel said this season's numerous snowstorms will no doubt give municipal leaders other headaches.

"Municipal budget might be significantly impacted before they see tax dollars coming in this year. It might hit the funds they have saved up for road programs. And we're going to have far more potholes this year because the frost line. It's much deeper than it has been in several years. We haven't had these kind of cold temperatures, and the amount of storms we've had adds to it," Knittel said.

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